“Look at them!” Yu Pin Yan wouldn’t let her do so. He grabbed her chin, turned her face to him and said sternly, “Look at them, don’t look away. Take this.” He took out the whip from his waist and thrust it into his sister’s hand.
Yu Xiang was somewhat confused. What did he give her a whip for?
“Hit them.” His flat tone was filled with animosity.
Yu Xiang was dumbfounded. Is it alright to let a ten-year-old girl learn to whip people with a whip? Shouldn’t you settle this? Shouldn’t they be rewarded with the beatings by the plank and be driven out? By doing this, wouldn’t it be teaching her in the wrong manner?
Yu Xiang’s excited hands were shaking, and she quickly hid the eyelids to cover her sparkling eyes.
Yu Pin Yan thought that she was afraid. He held her hand with a whip, and his lips were close to her ears. He reiterated one word after another, “Hit – them! If anyone disrespects you in the future, use the whip and whip them! Whoever has the whip mark on their body, immediately hit them 50 times by the plank and sell them! Although you have broken your leg, you are not a useless person. You are my Yu Pin Yan’s younger sister, so you should be proud, willful and live with your head and chest up! Do you understand? Raise your hand and hit them!”
Yu Xiang quickly took a glimpse of him. After a while, she raised her hand and resulted in a light red mark on Cui Xi’s face. Cu Xi immediately burst into two streams of tears and begged, “Young Miss, please spare my life! Marquis, I will never dare to do it again!”
“Shut up!” Yu Pin Yan glanced at her coldly. He looked at her sister again and reprimanded, “Use more force! Think about how they treat you. I don’t need a weak and gullible sister! If I am not by your side, are you going to be killed by my servants? Hm?”
Yu Xiang pursed her lips and turned to Cui Ping and gave a whip. Cui Ping covered her cheeks and screamed. The red blood flowed out along her fingers. It had scarred her face.
Yu Pin Yan then smiled, patted his sister’s head and said approvingly, “Very good, that’s it. Keep hitting.”
Ma momo swallowed her saliva and lowered her head to think to herself: Isn’t it improper for the little marquis to teach the young lady this way? This way of whipping people when she sees them. In the future, if this was to spread… She shook her head and sighed: Well, Young Miss is like this. How is it going to be related to a good reputation or not? It’s just better to be tough. Otherwise, in the future, she would only be sitting, and others are bullying her.
Yu Xiang whipped until Cui Ping and Cui Xi cried out, and the rancour that was buried in her heart finally broke out. With every lash of the whip, she chided, “Having you to covet my monthly allowance! Allowing you to steal my private stash! Yielding you to steal my food! Conceding you to serve me in front of my elder brother and trample me behind his back! Letting you call me ‘master’ in the open yet secretly naming me damn crippled! Letting you…”
Yu Pin Yan’s eyebrows and eyes, which had already smoothened, became gloom from her narration. He grasped her wrist and said softly, “Alright, Xiang’er.” He gently took her to one side, neatened her messy loose hair, stroked her red lips, and smiled gently, “Take a break, let elder brother do it.”
When he wasn’t aware of it, it was wonderful that these people took care of his younger sister like this! With a low and deep laugh, with a fling of his arm, it flipped Cui Ping off the ground. The cotton autumn clothes split an opening. The splatter of blood stuck on others’ faces, bodies and the ground. A strong stench of blood filled the room.
The mournful howl of Cui Ping shook the dust off the beams. When Cui Xi saw this scene, her skirt slowly oozed out a stream of smelly liquid. She was about to kowtow and beg for mercy, but she was whipped.
Yu Pin Yan was very handsome. He had a very tall nose, a sword-like eyebrow slanting into the temples, long and narrow phoenix eyes, and a beautiful thin lip. If he doesn’t get angry, he would be what others praised- The beauty in the high places is like jade, while the handsome young man is unparalleled in this world.[1] His elegant bearing is naturally dissociated from the mortal world.
However, once he is angry, the elegant bearing becomes fierce and violent in a blink of an eye. There were howls one after another in the room, and the stench of blood became more and more intense. After two-quarters of an hour, he suppressed the fierceness in his eyes and turned to his sister, “are you afraid?”
Yu Xiang shook her head, dumbfoundedly.
Like the early melting of snow mountains, the spring flowers blooming, Yu Pin Yan’s malevolence disappeared instantly and was replaced by endless gentleness. He sauntered to look at his sister’s clear eyes. In addition to worship, there seemed to be some burning emotion flowing in the deep-set eyes. He can’t understand it presently, but he just knew that his little sister was not afraid of the real him at all.
Yu Xiang plunged into his arms, embraced his neck, her voice quivering, “Elder brother, are you my blood-related elder brother?”
Once upon a time, there was a person who told her that you are my little sister, so you should live proudly, wantonly and with your head held high! However, she accidentally lost the man. If she found him again this time, they should be together forever. I live, and you live well too. If I die, you can accompany me to heaven or hell.
The corner of her dark red lip, that was as if they were blood, curved into a strange but gentle smile.
Yu Pin Yan patted her back and chided her gently, “What stupid things are you saying? How am I not your blood-related brother?” It doesn’t matter whether they were related by blood. He thinks she is his di[2] younger sister. Who dares to object?
Yu Xiang smiled and didn’t speak. Until now, she put this young man entirely into her heart.
Ma momo ordered people to drag the dying maidservants and pozi and reported to the Old madam. The Old Madam then granted each of them another 30 planks and then ordered a procuress to sell them all, including their families. The Marquis Yongle manor can’t raise such a rampant servant!
In You shi (5 pm – 7 pm), Tao Hong, Liu Lu and the others returned to the courtyard, they looked around but it was all unfamiliar faces. When the new servants saw them, they came running forward and greeted them respectfully while the young lady reclined on the soft couch by the window and was giggling with a whip.